The photographic film that is in the most widespread use today is a 35-mm film (system 135), as provided for by the Japanese Industrial Standards (JIS) and the International Organization of Standardization (IOS).
U.S. Pat. No. 5,049,908 describes a photographic camera and a film therefor, with the film being of a 35-mm size, devoid of sprocket holes of the size used in present 35-mm films, and having an effective image area of about 30 mm across the film, thereby providing an increased effective usable film area.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,384,774 and U.S. Pat. No. 5,066,971 propose cameras capable of switching between half and full frame sizes during film exposure. When film exposed using these proposed cameras is spliced into a long, single, continuous film strip for simultaneous batch processing, the continuous film strip also contains different frame sizes.
Film processing laboratories are therefore required to form notches indicative of frame centers for automatically printing spliced films with different frame sizes after they have been developed. For example, as disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,557,591, a human operator manually notches a side edge of a spliced film and, hence, the notches are used to control feeding of the film. With the disclosed process, it is impossible to process several thousand film strips per hour and, therefore, the cost of processing such exposed film is relatively high. As a consequence, film with different frame sizes may not be accepted by processing laboratories in Japan.
Many film processing laboratories all over the world also do not accept film with frames exposed in half size because they do not want different frame sizes to be contained in a single spliced film that is stored in a single film magazine for subsequent processing and printing. This problem arises because the different frame sizes can be recognized only after the film has been developed. One solution would be to apply marking seals to exposed films so that film having different frame sizes can be distinguished and sorted out for individual processing and printing. Nevertheless, use of marking seals would not essentially solve the problem, because it would be difficult to supply such marking seals consistently over a number of years.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,382,508 to Ikenoue apparently relates to a photographic film having image areas, a first data-recording portion located on a first side of the image area used by the film manufacturer for recording film information, and a second data-recording portion located on a second side of the image area opposite the first side for recording user-provided data, wherein the second data-recording portion has perforations for positioning the image area.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,453,815 to Yoshikawa apparently relates to a photographic printer and printing method for producing photographic prints of various aspect ratios from a photographic film based on data recorded on the photographic film.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,471,265 to Shibata et al. apparently relates to a photographic camera and printer for making photographic prints of various aspect ratios. the camera uses photographic film having perforations on one side and records aspect information on the side of the film with the perforations.
The Ikenoue, Yoshikawa, and Shibata et al. patents may be used to automatically print a picture having a predetermined picture aspect ratio in response to aspect ratio information recorded on the film, either as a single processed film or as part of a number of processed film strips spliced together so that prints are made continuously from the first frame to the last frame of the spliced film.
Film processing or printing laboratories are often required to print a specific frame or frames of a single processed film strip or of a spliced film after the film has been developed or when reprints or extra prints are requested. If such a request is proposed by a customer, the processing laboratories must set up the processed film in the printer and manually define the specific frame number to be printed. Presently, it is impossible to find the specific frame number of the film automatically so the cost of producing extra prints or printing a specific frame number is relatively high compared with the cost of producing standard prints.
The patents identified above do not appear to show or suggest a photographic system having a printer for automatically printing a specific frame or frames from processed photographic film having aspect ratio information recorded in a marginal area of the film.